In Situ Activation of Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Anchored on Graphite Foam for a High-Capacity Anode

We report the fabrication of a three-dimensional free-standing nitrogen-doped porous graphene/graphite foam by in situ activation of nitrogen-doped graphene on highly conductive graphite foam (GF). After in situ activation, intimate “sheet contact” was observed between the graphene sheets and the GF. The sheet contact produced by in situ activation is found to be superior to the “point contact” obtained by the traditional drop-casting method and facilitates electron transfer. Due to the intimate contact as well as the use of an ultralight GF current collector, the composite electrode delivers a gravimetric capacity of 642 mAh g–1 and a volumetric capacity of 602 mAh cm–3 with respect to the whole electrode mass and volume (including the active materials and the GF current collector). When normalized based on the mass of the active material, the composite electrode delivers a high specific capacity of up to 1687 mAh g–1, which is superior to that of most graphene-based electrodes. Also, after ∼90 s charging, the anode delivers a capacity of about 100 mAh g–1 (with respect to the total mass of the electrode), indicating its potential use in high-rate lithium-ion batteries.